If you're in business long enough, you'll almost certainly go through a PR crisis — it's a simple fact. Businesses, after all, are run by humans, and humans aren't infallible. Big or small — something is going to happen that looks worse than you'd like.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark., November 15, 2017 – Today, Mitchell Communications announced the launch of Ripple, an innovative influencer marketing approach focused on relevant storytelling by micro-influencers. The launch of Ripple converges with Mitchell’s legacy of hyper-local expertise to bring a unique blend of targeting capabilities to the influencer marketing landscape.

Celebrity endorsements are hardly novel: Brooke Shields hawked Calvin Klein jeans in the '80s, Bing Crosby crooned about StarKist tuna decades before that, and still today, the Kardashians push dozens of brands at a time.

However, social media's role in influencer marketing has changed the playing field. Consumers no longer trust their favorite celebrities' recommendations as much as they do their favorite YouTubers'. And brands are taking note. According to the State of Influencer Marketing 2017 report, the tactic exploded in growth last year, with almost 90 percent of marketers implementing influencer campaigns and spending between $25,000 and $50,000 to do so.